New York, NY - With some of the most audacious contemporary and
traditional performing arts coming from and inspired by Japan, Japan
Society announces its 2006-2007 Performing Arts season with special 2007
centennial programming. Beginning in September 2006, dance highlights
include: YUBIWA Hotel's CANDIES: girlish hardcore, a vivid exploration
of the darker side of girlhood and femininity; the 10th Annual Japanese
Contemporary Dance Showcase, presented for the first time by The Joyce
Theater in an unprecedented 8 performances; and in February 2007, the
Performing Arts Program kicks off Japan Society's Centennial celebration
with a world premiere commissioned production from Big Dance Theater
followed by an entire spring/summer season entitled "Noh~NOW!",
showcasing a wide range of noh theater from dance interpretations and
high-tech incarnations and traditional outdoor "bonfire" performances.

>From costume-play fetishism and Lolita complexes to obsessions with
school girls, women occupy an almost obsessive focus within Japanese
culture-objectified, dressed up, and worshipped. Lifting the sugary
frills and lace to expose that which can be erotic, grotesque and
violent, this ground-breaking performance company offers an extreme
journey through the vivid wasteland of girlhood. Led by director
Shirotama Hitsujiya (recognized in June 2006 as one of "The World's 100
Most Influential Japanese Women" by Newsweek Japan), the work of YUBIWA
Hotel is characterized by a relentless attempt to re-imagine and
represent the issues of contemporary womanhood in Japan through a
spectacle of interwoven dance, text, mask and lush costumes. This
production, which had its world premiere in the U.K. in early 2006, is
its North American debut. "YUBIWA Hotel is not just for the eyes-it
stimulates all five senses." - Mainichi Newspaper. Tickets: $28/$22
Japan Society members.

10th Annual Japanese Contemporary Dance Showcase
<Dance>

Presented by The Joyce Theater in association with Japan Society

January 16--21, Tues--Sun (see schedule below)

For the last nine years Japan Society has presented its annual showcase
introducing the most cutting-edge, emerging dance companies to audiences
in New York. To celebrate its 10th year, the showcase takes over one of
New York's most prominent dance venues, The Joyce Theater, and features
the cream of the crop in contemporary dance, including acclaimed
genre-bending Pappa Tarahumara led by visionary director Hiroshi Koike;
Kim Itoh and the Glorious Future, leader in the next generation of
post-butoh and postmodern dance; the dissociative multimedia collages of
Leni Basso, led by choreographer/dancer Akiko Kitamura, named one of the
"top 50 choreographers in the world" by Dance Magazine; and the pure
physical aestheticism of Noism07, led by choreographer Jo Kanamori.
"Modern dance from Japan is much among us these days, ubiquitous and
mysterious... Japan Society in particular has served as an invaluable
showcase for new Japanese dance in New York." - John Rockwell, The New
York Times

Performances will be held at The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue at
19th Street. Tickets, which go on sale in September are $30/$23 Japan
Society & The Joyce members. Contact The Joyce Theater box office: (212)
242-0800 or www.joyce.org<file:///C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\shannon\Local%20Settings\shannon\
Local%20Settings\shannon\Local%20Settings\Press%202005\Performing%20Arts
\Season%20release%202005-2006\www.joyce.org> .

FEBRUARY-JULY 2007 CENTENNIAL HIGHLIGHTS

In 2007-2008 Japan Society joins a venerable shortlist of American
organizations when it celebrates its 100th Anniversary. The Performing
Arts Program kicks off over a year of special programming and events
with a world premiere production commissioned from Big Dance Theater.
The celebration continues with the spring/early summer season theme
"Noh~Now!", exploring the resonance of the 600-year-old art form on both
the East and West with a wide range of diverse programs from traditional
noh classics to contemporary works inspired by noh.

The Bessie and Obie-winning company, led by choreographer Annie-B Parson
and director Paul Lazar, weaves an ineffable journey through the
ethereal stories of Masuiji Ibuse, juxtaposing Okinawan dance and music
with decidedly American found texts.

Written by one of the word's most beloved 20th century composers, this
opera, based on the classic noh play Sumidagawa, is directed by
internationally acclaimed Yoshi Oida with musical director David Stern.
A production of Rouen/Haute-Normandie Opera, Normandy, France.

Yukio Mishima's Modern Noh Plays

May 2007 (dates tba)

In adapting the seminal works of noh classics to modern contexts in the
1960s, Yukio Mishima radically reversed both their tone and their
process. New York-based artists will stage readings and
works-in-progress of these revolutionary plays.

An very rare opportunity to experience the tradition of noh and kyogen
in the outdoor takigi noh (bonfire noh) style. Featured performers
include leading noh artist Umewaka Rokuro and Kanze Tetsunojo with
members of Tessen-kai, and renowned kyogen master and film/TV star
Mansai Nomura and his seven-year-old son.

Fall 2007 Centennial Highlights

Performing Arts rounds out its centennial programming with "Turning
Japanese", a city-wide observance of Japan Society's 100th Anniversary
by some of the city's most prestigious performing arts venues
(throughout Fall 2007); the Butoh Celebration of Kazuo Ohno's 101st
Birthday in conjunction with the 3rd CAVE New York Butoh Festival
(October); an encore New York presentation and subsequent international
tour of Basil Twist's Bessie Award-winning Dogugaeshi (November); and
the first ever restaging of Harry Partch's 1969 masterwork Delusion of
the Fury (December). All dates are subject to change; more details to
come!

A Japanese adaptation of Chekhov's The Three Sisters by one of the most
prominent and beloved female playwrights in Japan today. New York-based
artist Cynthia Croot directs a cast of American actors from an English
translation by Loren Edelson--followed by a Q & A and discussion about
the process of cultural translation with the artists and playwright.
(November 13, Mon at 7:30 pm. Tickets: $10/$8 Japan Society members.)

Japan Society's film Series Lolita in Full Bloom: 1980s Irresistible
Heroines features smash-hit films starring Japanese pop stars known as
"idols". Major studios produced a large number of "idol" films, in which
the heroines were sassy, spunky and innocently sexy teenagers. Rarely
before seen in the United States, these legendary films capture the
shiniest moments of their adolescence. (November 10-19, 2006. Tickets: 5
tickets for the price of 4 FILM PASS $40/$24 Japan Society members,
students & seniors; single tickets are $10/$6.)

One of the founders of the butoh movement, legendary performer Akira
Kasai returns to Japan Society for a three-day workshop on his unique
style of dance incorporating butoh, improvisation, and eurhythmy.
Participants will be under consideration for Kasai's new choreographic
work, to be premiered in October of 2007 as part of Kazuo Ohno's 101st
Birthday Butoh Celebration at Japan Society in conjunction with the 3rd
New York Butoh Festival. Max 20 people. Workshop/Audition participants
may be selected through resume submission. E-mail resumes to
akirakasaiworkshop@japansociety.org by September 29, 2006. Japan Society
will notify participants of acceptance by October 20, 2006. Payment will
be due upon registration. Cost for all 3 sessions $200/$170 Japan
Society members

About Japan Society's Performing Arts Program

Since the inception of the Performing Arts Program in 1953, Japan
Society has introduced more than 500 of Japan's finest performing arts
to an extensive American audience. Programs range from the traditional
arts of noh, kyogen, bunraku and kabuki to cutting-edge theater, dance
and music. The Program also commissions new works; produces national
tours; organizes residency programs for American and Japanese artists;
and develops and distributes educational programs. "At once diverse and
daring, the program stands toe to toe with some of the most
comprehensive cultural exchange endeavors today" (Leonard Jacobs, Back
Stage).

About Japan Society

Founded in 1907 by prominent New York City business people and
philanthropists, Japan Society has evolved over nearly 100 years into an
internationally recognized nonprofit organization presenting a full
range of programs within arts and culture, business, education, family
and public policy. Through over 100 events annually, the Society creates
rich encounters and exchanges that offer opportunities to experience
Japanese culture; foster sustained and open dialogue on issues important
to the U.S., Japan, and East Asia; and improve access to information on
Japan.

Japan Society 2006--07 Performing Arts Programs are made possible in
part by The Starr Foundation; the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Endowment
Fund; the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; the Endowment for the
Performing Arts; Asahi Beer Arts Foundation; and The Fan Fox and Leslie
R. Samuels Foundation, Inc. Programs also made possible with public
funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency.
Transportation supported, in part, by ANA, All Nippon Airways. Plasma
Display provided by Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc.

Performances of YUBIWA Hotel's CANDIES: girlish hardcore are supported
by The Saison Foundation for Japan Society's Japanese Theater NOW
initiative and the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan; the Rakugo:
Traditional Japanese Comedy three-city tour is supported by the Agency
for Cultural Affairs, Japan; the Play Reading Series is supported, in
part, by the Kinokuniya Bookstore; Tzadik Label Music Series is
supported by The New York State Music Fund, established by the New York
Sate Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and The
Globus Family Charitable Trust; the Japanese Contemporary Dance Showcase
is supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan; Lolita in Full
Bloom: 1980s Irresistible Heroines has been made possible through the
generous support of The Globus Family.

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